Dreaming of Betrayal
by Mindmaze
Summary: Dreaming of sunshine fan story - Ino looks underneath the underneath during Shikako's match against Gaara and is not happy with what she finds.
1. Chapter 1

So this is based off of Dreaming of Sunshine chapter 95, Ino's reaction to Shikako's fight. It's AU and based off of what Ino said at the end of the chapter. You see I read her comment and thought to myself, "what if there was another reason she said that" and thus this was born.

If you don't know what D.O.S is then where have you been living? No but seriously it is an amazing Naruto self-insert by Silver Queen and I highly recommend you go educate yourself on the wonder that is her story.

...

Ino's reaction to Shikako's match was not like the majority of the crowd's or in fact her fellow comrades.

She didn't watch it like Lee and Kiba, full of disbelief and blind excitement.

She didn't watch it like Choji and Tenten who while equally excited were more reserved about it and full of awe.

She didn't watch it like Neij, with a focused assessing gaze and slight respect.

She didn't watch it like Hinata, silent admiration and well wishes.

She didn't watch it like Sasuke, wry almost exasperated humor mixed with subtle hints of envy and fondness.

And though she could not see them she did not watch with the pride she was sure Lady Hokage and Kakashi San were watching with.

That is not to say she didn't feel all of the above. She was after all a Yamanaka and therefore found it almost natural to categorize and acknowledge the various parts of herself. After all how can you expect to understand some one else's mind if you can't understand your own?

In truth she had struggled with this ever since _that_ incident. Sometimes she'd look in the mirror and be uncertain of who was looking back. How much of her was being influenced, corrupted?

Her dad had helped. Her team had helped. Taking missions and training had helped. It had been hard going but she had slowly regained her confidence.

She had improved, made herself stronger and changed her fighting style. She figured if she couldn't recognize who she'd been and she didn't like who she was then she would change once more but into something better.

Something she could choose and have control of.

So although she still wasn't certain she was one hundred percent herself she did understand where her mind was currently at and so she was able to easily distance these emotions and focus on her most pressing one.

Ino watched Shikako's match with a slowly dawning dread.

Her insides squirmed with her worry and she felt a little nauseous.

Watching Shikako fight she did not focus on the wow factor of Shikako's achievements but rather _why_ the girl had made them.

Shikako had always been motivated and eager to learn but the Shikako she grew up with didn't like attention. She must have known the moves she was pulling off would give her nothing but that.

So why?

Why had she learned them?

Even though she wasn't as accomplished at sealing like Shikako she could still recognize a high ranking technique when she saw one. It was the implications of this that unsettled her.

High ranking techniques take time to learn, they can't just be mastered say in time for a Chunin exam. This meant Shikako had been training in such dangerous techniques way before she knew she was going to face Gaara or even join the new exam.

Yes she knew the girl's history. The rather shocking list of A ranks, her run in with missing nin but it still didn't explain it.

Shikako wasn't the only one to have been affected, they'd all taken on A ranks and had their eyes opened. They were all training but no one was pushing themselves to the extent Shikako seemed to be.

Didn't she know she could slow it down, that the adults in her life would protect her until she was ready?

Had she really been so shaken that she felt Konoha no longer offered her protection, to the point she had to go to such extremes?

Or was there something else?

Shikako always seemed to just know stuff. Most people wrote it off as the Nara being perceptive and quick to catch on but what if… what if just this once she actually knew something.

What if Shikako suspected something?

Something that was a threat to those important to her because even though this was all speculation if in fact Shikako was motivated by something she knew it would be for such a reason.

The one thing she knew for sure motivated Shikako like no other was the protection of her precious people.

It was only by seeing Naruto be more vocal about it that she'd realized they shared this similarity.

Still the question remained, why was Shikako a mere genin so obsessed with getting stronger?

The spike of fear shot through her again.

Just who was she expecting to fight?

The absolute worst thing about the girl wasn't that she could fool you into believing nothing was wrong it was that she could fool herself.

After all, it is ten times harder to recognize a problem in someone that they themselves can't even see.

She still remembered Shikako's words to her that one time, Shikako had admitted that being under the Sharigan had affected her more than she let on. Until she'd verbally confirmed it Ino had been oblivious to the extent of the after effects that lingered on the girl and she had a feeling that the rest of her comrades were still as fooled.

There in lay her current problem.

Shikako had shown her she was good at lying. At portraying one emotion and showing another…which led to her current predicament.

What really concerned her in all this wasn't the improvement itself because honestly she would love to just write it off as a reaction to the constant trauma team seven seemed to suffer.

However she knew better than to take the simpler, more convenient, _wrong_ answer.

What worried her most was _when_ it started.

Because looking back Shikako's leaps of improvement only really became noticeable after graduation.

The change didn't seem suspicious only because she had lived it alongside Shikako but from an outside perspective it really hadn't been that long since they had left the academy.

Shikako had gone from being Shikamaru's second shadow to a focussed highly skilled shinobi in no time at all.

She had done this by being motivated but the motivation upon looking back seemed to have been there long before any logical cause.

This scared her.

It scared her because it wasn't just a change in skill level but also personality.

She hadn't noticed since she was too close to the situation. It was only after digging she realized if someone were to get Iruka's opinion of the girl's character it wouldn't match the one currently fighting in the ring.

This change worried her because she'd not long had her own mind probed at her insistence as well as ANBU's encase she got more than a cosmetic job after her tussle with the mind snake so she was more than familiar on what signs to look for in a sleeper agent.

A part of her vehemently rejected this idea, that it couldn't be true, that any and all change was a result of trauma.

 _Wouldn't you become manic in training after literally dying more than once?_

 _Wouldn't you want to get stronger after being caught under and S rank criminal's Sharigan?_

 _Wouldn't you want to get stronger after having your home invaded?_

Yes, this all fit as good excuses but as she had just established the real change was already in place before then.

 _The forest of death, three bodies and there in the center of destruction, the cause of the destruction, stood Shikako…_

At the time she had been concerned about her but looking back…

Where had the sudden skill come from? She grew up with this girl, surely she would have noticed? If it was a recent development why was she training that hard even back then?

 _Wouldn't you want to get stronger after just graduating?_

Well yes, naturally but to the extent Shikako had?

It wasn't like she could have known she would face an S rank nin before then.

Had that been the first time she'd caught a glimpse of the real Shikako? Had the rest been a lie? A false show of emotion just like she had proved she could in the hospital.

She really wanted to deny her suspicions…but if she is a sleeper agent…

She was a Yamanaka.

A ninja of Konoha.

Her loyalty is to her village and she has a duty to take action against potential threats.

Even if they come from her friends.

Even if she'd rather ignore it.

The more she thought about it the worse it got.

Even her excuses for the girl had holes in them.

At best she was the paranoid one and Shikako was just suffering PTSD.

Semi worst it's a mixture of both, she's paranoid, projecting her own self-doubts onto her friend and Shikako is also hiding something.

At worst…a sleeper agent.

A Spy.

A spy who is close to not only the last Uchiha but all of the future clan heads, with influence to two other villages through her ties to their genin.

A spy who is gradually becoming a skilled powerhouse and _no one_ seems to care or find it unusual.

When Shikako's fight finishes she tries to act like nothing is wrong and greet her normally. The girl is mainly out of it so it isn't hard and she's yet to get any solid proof at this point so she's willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

That doesn't mean she'll do nothing.

The use of Shikako's title as Shikabane-hime is spoken purposely loud. To most people it will sound like a light bit of teasing between friends.

To others it is a warning.

A warning that this girl is a threat, that she is not what she seems, a warning to please, please look into her and see what you make of her sudden progress.

To please let her know her suspicions are unfounded.

To please let her know she does not have to tell her teammates (Shikako's twin) her suspicions.

To please let her know that they do not have a spy who not only has them all wrapped around her little finger but is also very hard to kill.

The title which started out as a joke is suddenly more ominous.

Ino watches Shikako stumble alongside Kiba with barely suppressed caution.

Ino had been anxious for Shikako's safety before the fight.

Ino had watched the fight with fear...but not for Shikako.

...

Yes I know, the horror of Shikako being seen as anything but our golden girl but that's what it makes a good AU. The fact a needless drama wrench that not even Miss Reincarnated see's coming enters the picture is something that amuses me so tada this was born.

Seriously though chapter 95 was beyond epic so I had to do something to show my appreciation so even though it's not the exactly the best piece of writing I hoped you enjoyed it.


	2. Chapter 2

This was originally supposed to be a one shot but...my mind just wouldn't shut up and like a playful puppy I just couldn't help but to respond to it's eagerness.

To Lola (if you read this) Shikako couldn't use that as an excuse as part of Ino's accusation was that Shikako had this whole shift before then, after graduation that she only really noticed in the forest of death but it's only now she's questioning it.

…

Asuma was not a man of many tells but even his genin would suspect something was troubling him if they were to somehow manage to sneak up on him right now.

The cigarette which he habitually puffed away of sat lost between his lips and if things weren't so serious right now he'd probably be upset over the wasted nicotine.

This had all started due to his own prying.

Dam the old man for giving him a team and forcing him to follow these ridiculous mentor obligations.

Okay so even he had to admit that was out of line and if he was honest with himself he probably would have investigated even if he wasn't her current teacher, as any loyal jonin would but seriously…he had no idea how he'd gotten into this mess.

When he'd first approached Ino after noticing her slightly more somber mood he'd never expected this of all things.

Sighing he shifted a little on the branch he was hunched up upon. To think he'd misjudged the situation so badly.

It had been easy to notice that something was up with Ino. Her smiles were a to little wide, her voice was pitched just a note higher than it should be and he'd caught her more than once ignore Sasuke when he was talking in favour of something else.

Now he knew her crush was no longer as obsessive as it had once been but she liked him enough that she always at least paid extra attention when he spoke.

Sure it was good enough to fool her peers but he was an experienced shinobi and it was part of his job as her teacher to look out for her welfare. He'd been paying her even more attention recently because although she didn't know it the higher ups still wanted her behavior patterns reported on even after all that time with her father…just encase.

So he'd perceived straight away when her countenance shifted to something more forced and almost guarded.

Originally he presumed it was something to do with her insecurities. She'd never said it but she didn't have to, especially not when Inoichi himself had approached him not long after the incident to confide in him about what Ino really thought of her eyes.

Being around her team mates and the rest of rookies had helped, she'd been more relaxed and assured of herself however he hadn't ignored the fact this would be her first time facing judgment from outside of the village.

Sure she had been on missions since then but with those she at least had the task to focus on. Here she was at a place with foreign shinobi who unlike their civilian counterpart would know that her eyes as a Yamanaka are not supposed to look like that.

He had half expected some of the competitors to make some disparaging comment on them, if only because mind games were a predictable tactic in the Chunin exams.

Ino though more than able to shake off such remarks was not yet fully accepting of her new appearance so having a comment come from someone she saw as a "peer" someone in her age group might just have a chance at fraying a nerve.

He'd approached her just before dawn watch when she had gotten up early to do her morning mediation her father had suggested to her.

The others didn't know she did them not even her teammates and he didn't see the need to inform them, not when it was a vital part of her recovery. It helped center herself and was a way of reminding herself of just who she was, no he wouldn't risk informing the others on the off chance it made her stop out of irrational feelings of shame.

What he had found out was in no way what he had been expecting when he'd first initiated the conversation.

She thought Shikako was a sleep agent.

Shikako. Shikako Nara. The Jonin Commander's daughter. One of her supposed best friends. Kakashi's student, that Shikako.

A headache didn't even begin to cover what he was feeling.

He had done the only thing he could, he had heard her out.

She was his student and she had approached him with a concern and even though it sounded ludicrous, even though it probably wasn't true he still owed it to Ino as his student to listen to her and at least consider what she was suggesting.

Plus what she was expressed was a genuine concern and he had a duty to his village to at least make sure it wasn't valid.

The problem was, in a roundabout way she had a point…or at least enough of a point that he was now obligated to do something.

Just what, he had yet to figure out.

Did he investigate on his own time or did he report it to the Hokage as the rule book dictated he do in these types of situations?

Problem with the rule book was that it generalized too much and never took into consideration the circumstances of individual cases.

It wasn't as simple as report to the official channels and launch an investigation.

She was a clan head's daughter for Kami sake!

Not to mention the disaster that was just waiting to happen if Shikaku found out it was Inoichi's own daughter who was putting his under fire.

The Ino, Shika, Cho alliance would be truly tested and he didn't want to know the outcome.

Shikaku's mind worked differently than the average shinobi's, would he really put his daughter above clan relations? Would he really sever years of team work between the families, hell his own friendship with the other two clan heads for his daughter?

Not to mention how his own team would be affected. Shikamaru was highly protective over Shikako and unlike Shikaku who he knew might have to look in his clan's best interest he knew Shikamaru would not.

He might try proving Ino wrong, rationalizing it, find some other answer but if he couldn't go around Ino he had no doubts Shika would lash out.

Hell he didn't even want to think about how Shikamaru would react if Ino was right.

That was all it came down to, was she right?

He still wasn't sure she was, the answer alluded him however something needed to be done.

None of this was even beginning to take into account the vultures who were just waiting for this kind of inner conflict in Konoha to take advantage of and if the clans started taking sides then they would really be in trouble.

A potential civil war was not an unreasonable out come from list of worst case scenarios he'd mentally been predicting.

Actually scratch that he knew the worst case scenario, he'd be dead.

He'd be dead when Kakashi butchered him.

Kakashi who preached loyalty and the importance of team work, Kakashi who so often boasted about his team in the Jonin lounge through sly off hand comments, Kakashi who would see it as personal betrayal if he reported her to the Hokage without first telling him of his intentions.

And even though he knew this he still didn't want to contemplate telling him.

He wouldn't believe it for starters and he lacked the professional distance like himself in order to think rationally and as smart as Kakashi was he might just give the game away which would be disastrous if she really was a spy.

If she really was a spy he didn't want to be the one to inform Kakashi who had already lost so much.

In his gut he just knew Kakashi would blame himself and do something stupid. He had almost gotten himself killed in ANBU before his old man had forcibly pulled him out, no one wanted a repeat performance.

The worst part of being unsure was that at least if he decided on a side maybe one of his students would forgive him.

He didn't think Ino would be happy with his current doubts into her own mental well-being, just as Shikamaru wouldn't be happy he was even considering this scenario.

He would have found it easy to reassure Ino, be more confident that he was right and there was no way Shikako could be as sleeper agent except…

 _That file._

 _That thrice cursed file that Gaara had handed over to Shikako in the dead of night which he had spied whilst on his patrol._

It didn't have to mean anything…but it could.

Especially when it was used to support Ino's no longer quite as extreme leaps of deductive reasoning.

Hadn't he and Kurenai jokingly made bets on Shikako's interactions with the foreign genin, especially on her closeness to the sand siblings. Hadn't they teasingly mentioned within ear shot of Kakashi that they thought both Gaara and Shikako were moving a bit too fast.

It was meant to ruffle Kakashi's feathers but now…

What if there was a reason she was so close to the foreign shinobi?

Urgh! He knew better than to speculate, that had been Ino's mistake and how she had ended up scaring herself.

Now was the time to investigate, gather any evidence with out jumping to conclusions and maybe inform his superiors. If he didn't and it turned out Ino was right it would be his neck on the line for not reporting it.

He also had to make it clear in his report of his concern that Ino could be the problem. His student's insistence of having her mind probed showed she had been convinced at some point that she could have been a plant after her scuffle.

It was a very real possibility that Ino's sessions with her dad hadn't been going as well as they had thought and that she was just projecting her own insecurities onto Shikako.

If that was the case he wondered if Shikako would ever forgive Ino for accusing her.

He also wondered how things had gotten so bad.

Either one was mentally unfit for duty or the other was a spy.

Both of them were clan head daughters.

One of them was supposed to be heir.

Either way one of them or maybe even both of them were going to suffer the consequences.

In fact they all were.

A part of him couldn't help but feel that he was responsible, that he'd either failed Ino or was about to fail her as well as the rest of his team.

He really wasn't looking forward to their return to Konoha.

…

So here's chapter two, I don't really know where I'm going with this, to be honest the idea just kind spiraled out of control. A rather apt reflection of how much shit is going to hit the fan eventually.

Basically this is me just having fun turning everything on its head because you know we all love a bit of mindless destruction and chaos. Also I like the idea of seeing how wrong things could have gone if Ino had been just a little bit less recovered than in Silver Queen's version.


End file.
